GADSDEN, Alabama -- Former Alabama football player Joe King is in a Birmingham hospital after a serious car accident Sunday morning.

According to Alabama State Troopers, the accident occurred at 2:10 a.m. on Rocky Hollow Road near U.S. 11 and Pope Circle. King, 47, of Altoona, was driving a 2002 Ford F-150 west in a sharp curve when he lost control of the truck and struck a concrete culvert and a tree, totaling the vehicle.

Troopers investigating the wreck said the truck was traveling over the speed limit, and King had been drinking. King was transported to UAB Hospital.

King, a native of Gadsden and an offensive lineman from 1985-1988, stood a massive 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighed more than 300 pounds during his playing days.

However, he was suspended several times for substance abuse before finally being kicked off the team. He was later shot in a Birmingham housing project in 1988, and jailed in 1995 for a Tuscaloosa bank robbery.

He was listed as working with an Etowah County drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and had worked as a counselor with other ministries.